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Priorities (L.E.A.D.)

Legacy – Focus on decreasing land loss in historically underrepresented communities

  • Scrutinize current policies, procedures, and practices to determine if these are the most appropriate for the future.
  • Pay particular attention to wills, estates, probate, foreclosures, partitions, heir property, and intestate succession to address growing concerns of land loss

Efficiency – Reassess outdated methods to enhance the effectiveness of court operation

  • Institute/expand remote hearing options
  • Reallocate human resources within the office and invest in upskilling and retraining staff
  • Encourage new ideas/innovations/improvements and ensure staff ideas are considered for implementation

Accountability/ Integrity – Exemplify fairness and build confidence in the judiciary

  • Establish and impartial and confidential system for citizens and staff to report harmful incidents without fear of retaliation and set up a system of accountability repercussions for violators
  • Re-think the Magistrate nomination process
  • Implement a system to measure trial court performance based on established metrics of access to fairness, time to disposition, trial date certainty, and integrity of case files 

Diversity/ Equity/Accessibility—Ensure equal access to the court system and its resources

  • Establish a Law Library and Resource Center including a dynamic website with current and easily accessible information
  • Consider partnering with a non-profit to establish childcare for jurors, others with business before the court, and children who are witnesses or subject to custody, abuse, and neglect hearings, so they do not have to sit in the courtroom and re-live the trauma that brought them there in the first place. 
  • Hire bilingual staff
  • Listen and respond to the needs of community members and encourage diversity of thought